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A vigil calling for the release of Israeli hostages taken in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas ended in a brief faceoff between pro-Israel supporters and a small group of counter-protesters supporting Palestinians at McGill University on Tuesday.
Campus security interrupted a brief confrontation between two people on opposite sides who shoved each other as the groups came face to face toward the end of the demonstration, which otherwise unfolded peacefully.
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The vigil began at 11 a.m. with a few dozen McGill students decorated in Israeli flags lining the entrance to the school, just beyond the Roddick Gates, holding hostage posters as organizers said prayers and read hostage names and ages through microphones.
During the vigil, a small group of people in keffiyeh scarves formed near the Roddick Gates, where a large Palestinian flag was on the ground beside a speaker blasting music. Both the number of vigil participants and counter-protesters slowly picked up as the event continued, with the latter peeling the Palestinian flag off the ground and holding it up just beyond the entrance to the corridor of people holding hostage posters.
About 240 Israelis were taken hostage and about 1,200 were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in counterattacks by Israel in the time since.
It’s estimated that about 100 Israelis are still being held hostage today.
The event was organized by McGill students representing a coalition of Jewish groups on campus.
Organizer Jamie Fabian said the event was held to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the Hamas attack — which was Sunday — when enough students would be on campus.
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“We wanted … to show that the hostages being mercilessly kidnapped were not forgotten in Montreal,” he said. “And that the McGill students remember them, and we will bring them home.”
Erica Harroch, a psychology student at McGill, said she participated to support the cause and her people.
“We’re really just here for peaceful reasons, we’re not here to ignite the fire,” she said. “We’re just trying to bring our people home, bring our hostages home. We’re really here for peaceful reasons.”
It was once the vigil itself had ended that its participants moved closer to where the counter-protesters were standing. Within about 15 minutes, the crowds had dispersed.
The vigil happened to coincide with a demonstration by McGill teaching assistants striking for better wages, many of whom wore keffiyeh scarves. Pro-Palestinian protesters were standing near a table of food that had been set up for the TA strike for the duration of the vigil.
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